History UsefulNotes / SpanishNamingConventions

** Marc Gasol, Barcelona-born basketball player for the Memphis Grizzlies and younger brother of Pau Gasol (below)

We should note that the typical sample of last names is largely universal for all hispanohablante nations, with small regional variations in popularity. Some places (Cuba) retain more colonial names than the others, some (Barranquilla) have a lot of other cultural names, and some (the Basque) have names all their own. Also, though there are many rules in place, from the 21st century and liberalization of tradition these can be seen more as guidelines, and as long as you have more than one last name it's probably fine. And you must have more than one last name, even if you don't: all functions of society in many of these nations basically rely on being able to fill out two boxes for your surname, and they also enforce the NaturalizedName in that if you are a citizen of the nation your legal name, at least for the country, has to follow their conventions, so if you were to emigrate you might have to make up an extra given name or two and remember that people asking for your mother's maiden name just need it to look you up, not to steal your password.

Note: This page uses the sub-headings "apellido" and "nombre" because whilst these have perfect translations into many languages, American English is not one of them[[note]][[SeparatedByACommonLanguage British English]] [[CulturalTranslation is, though.]][[/note]]. As you'll learn from reading on, "last name" and "first name" are barely accurate at all, really.

Most hispanohablante nations have many surnames in common, see the list below.

The two surnames is a simpler way of recording heritage than many other hispanohablante nations, which often use more family names, with Spain taking only the father's first surname and the mother's first surname. Usually, the father's becomes the child's first surname, with the mother's becoming the second -- for example, if your parents were Joe Lopez Mendez and your mother Jane Rodriguez Garcia, you would be Lopez Rodriguez -- but the order is becoming more liberal. In common usage, only the given name and first surname are used, except for points of differentiation. This is why Creator/FedericoGarciaLorca is known either with both surnames or, actually most usually, simply as "Lorca" -- García is ''very'' common.

In Chile, surnames are used in the paternal first surname + maternal first surname format. There is one large difference to most hispanohablantes nations, though, in that it is actually considered rather offensive to try to apply a married name to a woman's surnames. Chile also has quite a high number of Basque surnames, among many historically Spanish but relatively uncommon names (e.g. Contreras, Sepúlveda).

* '''Cote''' -- this is a nickname that is fairly common in most hispanohablantes nations that is an affectionate name for girls called "María José" and "María Josefa". Whilst it is common in these other countries, though, there are typically other nicknames as well (e.g. Pepa) and they will not use Cote as if it is basically a replacement name in the way that, for example, Pepe is for José alone. In many South American countries, though, they do. An example would be the Chilean actress Creator/CoteDePablo.

In Paraguay there's a lot of Castilian influence, as well as some Portuguese names like Duarte being common.

!Southern Cone

!!UsefulNotes/{{Argentina}}
In Argentina, the surname practice is the same as that of the United States for most; children take their father's surname, and people use only this one surname. A significant minority do use both parental surnames.

!!UsefulNotes/{{Chile}}
In Chile, surnames are used in the paternal first surname + maternal first surname format. There is one large difference to most hispanohablantes nations, though, in that it is actually considered rather offensive to try to apply a married name to a woman's surnames. Chile also has quite a high number of Basque surnames, among many historically Spanish but relatively uncommon names (e.g. Contreras, Sepúlveda).

!!UsefulNotes/{{Paraguay}}
In Paraguay there's a lot of Castilian influence, as well as some Portuguese names like Duarte being common.

!!UsefulNotes/{{Uruguay}}
In Uruguay, two surnames are used but the parents can choose which order these are used, like in Spain. There is also the provision for same-sex couples that if an agreement cannot be reached then it will chosen by random draw, otherwise if the parents can't agree then the father's goes first.
%%
%%!!!Nombres

!!!Nicknames

* '''Cote''' -- this is a nickname that is fairly common in most hispanohablantes nations that is an affectionate name for girls called "María José" and "María Josefa". Whilst it is common in these other countries, though, there are typically other nicknames as well (e.g. Pepa) and they will not use Cote as if it is basically a replacement name in the way that, for example, Pepe is for José alone. In many South American countries, though, they do. An example would be the Chilean actress Creator/CoteDePablo.
%%
%%!!!Southern Cone

** Creator/MichelleGomez, a Scottish actress well known for playing [[Characters/DoctorWhoMasters Missy]]

** Isabella Gomez, Colombian actress best known for playing Elena on ''Series/OneDayAtATime2017''

** Pau Casals i Defilló (more often known in the Anglosphere by the Spanish equivalent, Pablo Casals), virtuoso cellist and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom

** David Ortiz, aka "Big Papi", now-retired Dominican [[UsefulNotes/HistoricalPeopleToKnowInLMB baseball star]], most notably with the Boston Red Sox

** Pedro Martínez]], Dominican [[UsefulNotes/HistoricalPeopleToKnowInMLB Hall of Fame]] pitcher for several [[UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} Major League Baseball]] teams

** Pedro Martínez, Dominican Hall of Fame baseball pitcher

** David Ortiz, aka "Big Papi", now-retired Dominican baseball star, most notably with the Boston Red Sox

** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Martínez Pedro Martínez]], [[UsefulNotes/HistoricalPeopleToKnowInMLB Hall of Fame]] pitcher for several Major League Baseball teams

Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, so much of the culture and common names amongst Puerto Ricans in the US is very similar to on Puerto Rico itself. This means that they probably have names similar to what you expect. Still, there are cultural differences as well as Caribbean influence that create some differences, and of course different communities that maybe haven't had as much impact on US culture. As such, there are some French and classical names appearing as well.

In general, there are two factors that majorly affect Nicaraguan naming schemes: the ethnic diversity of the country, and politics. While the political elite is largely mestizo, there are to this day notable indigenous and Afro-descendent groups that speak indigenous languages and creole English, mostly in the Eastern half of the country. While many families gave their kids conservative, biblical names akin to franquist Spain until the Sandinista Revolution of 1979, since then Russian derived "communist" names -- and in more recent times, "American" names -- have become popular. However, it is often that not all Nicaraguans fully understand the cultural origin of the name and as such last names may be used as first names, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS uncommon spellings]] and [[ItIsPronouncedTropay mispronunciations]] abound.

* '''Ricky''' -- an Anglicized nickname for Enrique, and one that can confuse: Enrique is not Spanish for Richard, it's Spanish for Henry. Again, while it exists in Spain, it is more popular in the Americas.

** Many more Spanish kings, coincidentally how they named UsefulNotes/ThePhillippines, including the current one, King Felipe VI of Spain

* Alba -- meaning 'dawn' (note:in Scottish, it means Scotland, don't confuse the two)

** Marc Gasol, Barcelona-born basketball player for the Memphis Grizzlies

** Pau Casals i Defilló, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom

In Argentina, the surname practice is the same as that of the United States for most; children take their father's surname, and people use only this one surname.

** Music/SelenaGomez, American singer and Disney channel actress

** Creator/RitaMoreno, legendary Puerto-Rican actress

Note: This page uses the sub-headings "apellido" and "nombre" because whilst these have perfect translations into many languages, American English is not one of them[[note]][[SeparatedByACommonLanguage British English is, though.]][[/note]]. As you'll learn from reading on, "last name" and "first name" are barely accurate at all, really.

** Music/BrunoMars (aka Peter Hernández), American singer of Puerto Rican-Filipino

** Music/BrunoMars (aka Peter Hernández, American singer of Puerto Rican-Filipino

** Music/BrunoMars (aka Peter Hernández, American singer of Puerto Rican-Filipino descent

* García -- the most common surname in Spain, and second in Mexico and Cuba, it derives from an old word meaning 'young'

!Caribbean

!South America

!!UsefulNotes/{{Venezuela}}

Venezuelan law has been under criticism for trying to restrict names in a country that has always had a lot of eccentric freedom in naming. Many countries have similar laws, imposed to try to prevent bullying, but the Venezuelans also argued that particularly strict enforcers of the rule might forbid them from giving their children traditional names that could be [[TheProblemWithPenIsland misread or misheard as something worse]]. There's the example of Elvio Lado (approx. Elvis Next), which is perfectly fine; el violado, however, could be a way of ''shaming a person who has been raped''. The argument wages on, as it does seem a bit unfair to take away the ability for Monica and Rubio Lado to name their son Elvio.

There was another proposal to instead permit a list of 100 names every year, so that many kids would have the same names and wouldn't get bullied. As mentioned above, Venezuelan people are used to being able to give lots of odd names, so this didn't go over well, either, and instead provoked people to expand their nominal vocabulary further. Then the rest of the world heard about the scandal and realised that there were quite a few names inspired by Communist leaders (which is not remarkable in Venezuela, but uncomfortable to a lot of the West), so there has been some dampening. This means that pre-2007, you will find some fantastic Russian and Chinese names (Maolenin was quite common, or the footballer Wuiswell -- Roosevelt, it seems). Post-2007, you will likely find equally strange names, but inspired by Americanisms (there's at least one Juanjondre -- an attempt to write one hundred -- and people like Creator/JhonenVasquez with just odd names).

Besides this, the upper classes usually do stick to traditional Spanish names. The politicians of the country are a mix of traditionally-named and radically-named people, which at one point lead to some hierarchy and shaming within the government, and so the idea of reducing odd names may come from the government thinking that similar class identification and subsequent bullying occurs elsewhere, but in practice it doesn't seem to. This may be due to respect for social-climbing and the anthropological theory that having a foreign-sounding name is a form of being elite because in Venezuela, foreign things are highly valued (the ability to import is a marker of wealth, especially when surrounded by relatively poor countries).

Some parents also practice [[SdrawkcabName reversing their names]] and giving that to their kids. They also like to use letters like 'y' and 'k' to start names, which is typically uncommon in Spanish names, but in some cases is easier to say than the foreign sounds they replace.

!!!Apellidos
Studies show that there is a lot of variation in surnames in Venezuela the closer you get to Caracas, with very rural areas having fewer surnames in total as well as little change in surnames over time. This isn't particularly unusual globally, but the notable trend suggests that regional movement is happening in Venezuela, but family ties are still very strong -- this is something to consider when giving your characters and their families and friends surnames depending on their region and job.

!!UsefulNotes/{{Ecuador}}

!!!Apellidos
The most common last name in Ecuador is Zambrano, which you will find a lot. There are some interesting details, though, like the widespread Lebanese diaspora making these surnames common across the country, as well as names for people particularly in the East being in the form "de los X". This comes from the history of slavery, where plantation workers would be identified by where they worked (which takes the place of the 'X').

!!!Nombres

%%!!!Other

!South America
!!UsefulNotes/{{Colombia}}

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_colombia.png]]
Colombia sticks with the most common Latin American practice of having surnames from parents and grandparents. This may seem confusing, but it's basically the same pattern as only having father and mother, but twice: you get father's and then mother's paternal surname, and then father's and then mother's maternal surname. Of course, your parents likely have four names, too, and you only take two from each. If you don't want to truly work out why, you can visualize it as having father's 1 - mother's 1 - father's 2 - mother's 2. Regarding marriage, it is typically personal choice whether to take a married name or not. Recently, also, some men also take an honorific from their wife when they get married. Of course, this doesn't really matter when it comes to giving children names, so why not.

More unique to Colombia is the large presence of Middle Eastern names, especially in the Atlántico area. In the 20th century, a lot of people from the Middle East immigrated to Latin America, and a lot of these arrived in Barranquilla because it was a reasonably large but also very easy to access port city from the Atlantic, as well as being on a Northern coast and so convenient for gulf streams. Many of the most popular surnames in Atlántico are Middle Eastern, and there's also a Catalan presence because they, similarly, decided to up and leave an oppressive country for one that was realistically not much better until 2016. This can be seen in, for example, Music/{{Shakira}} -- the singer is from Barranquilla, with the full name she most often gives out being Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll: Mebarak is Lebanese and Ripoll is Catalan. They're also two of the most common surnames in Barranquilla. If you're wondering, yes, Shakira does actually have more surnames, and at least in her pre-"Music/HipsDontLie" career she did give at least four in interviews.

That's also particular: at least four, because the F1 - M1 - F2 - M2 is the standard, but it's easily possible that if you like a particular relative, or someone's been married multiple times [[ChristianityIsCatholic and you haven't disowned them]], or for a variety of other reasons, you can have more.

Colombia has some diversity in surnames, with the different regions seemingly split on names. Atlántico is described above, then you have Antioquia, which has a lot of surnames from jobs (e.g. Zapata) and locations in Eastern Spain (e.g. Restrepo, Montoya). Valle del Cauca also has these distinct Spanish locations, with Valencia being a popular surname in Cali, and towns called things like Andalucía. Comparatively, Bogotá basically has a random selection of the most common Spanish surnames (as in the list above) as its own popular ones -- this says that Colombia has a lot of recent immigrants... except in its principal city. This might not be a class issue even though it seems to be: Bogotá is far inland, with the other areas surrounding it having coastlines, meaning the immigrants just didn't travel very far, especially since there are large cities across Colombia now and less political tension than in the capital. This is supported by the division in Medellín, a city in Antioquia but still very inland, in that it also has more of the common Spanish surnames than the rest of its region, with most of Antioquia being closer to the sea and even having ports, like at Turbo.

!!UsefulNotes/{{Venezuela}}

Venezuelan law has been under criticism for trying to restrict names in a country that has always had a lot of eccentric freedom in naming. Many countries have similar laws, imposed to try to prevent bullying, but the Venezuelans also argued that particularly strict enforcers of the rule might forbid them from giving their children traditional names that could be [[TheProblemWithPenIsland misread or misheard as something worse]]. There's the example of Elvio Lado (approx. Elvis Next), which is perfectly fine; el violado, however, could be a way of ''shaming a person who has been raped''. The argument wages on, as it does seem a bit unfair to take away the ability for Monica and Rubio Lado to name their son Elvio.

There was another proposal to instead permit a list of 100 names every year, so that many kids would have the same names and wouldn't get bullied. As mentioned above, Venezuelan people are used to being able to give lots of odd names, so this didn't go over well, either, and instead provoked people to expand their nominal vocabulary further. Then the rest of the world heard about the scandal and realised that there were quite a few names inspired by Communist leaders (which is not remarkable in Venezuela, but uncomfortable to a lot of the West), so there has been some dampening. This means that pre-2007, you will find some fantastic Russian and Chinese names (Maolenin was quite common, or the footballer Wuiswell -- Roosevelt, it seems). Post-2007, you will likely find equally strange names, but inspired by Americanisms (there's at least one Juanjondre -- an attempt to write one hundred -- and people like Creator/JhonenVasquez with just odd names).

Besides this, the upper classes usually do stick to traditional Spanish names. The politicians of the country are a mix of traditionally-named and radically-named people, which at one point lead to some hierarchy and shaming within the government, and so the idea of reducing odd names may come from the government thinking that similar class identification and subsequent bullying occurs elsewhere, but in practice it doesn't seem to. This may be due to respect for social-climbing and the anthropological theory that having a foreign-sounding name is a form of being elite because in Venezuela, foreign things are highly valued (the ability to import is a marker of wealth, especially when surrounded by relatively poor countries).

Some parents also practice [[SdrawkcabName reversing their names]] and giving that to their kids. They also like to use letters like 'y' and 'k' to start names, which is typically uncommon in Spanish names, but in some cases is easier to say than the foreign sounds they replace.

Studies show that there is a lot of variation in surnames in Venezuela the closer you get to Caracas, with very rural areas having fewer surnames in total as well as little change in surnames over time. This isn't particularly unusual globally, but the notable trend suggests that regional movement is happening in Venezuela, but family ties are still very strong -- this is something to consider when giving your characters and their families and friends surnames depending on their region and job.

!!UsefulNotes/{{Ecuador}}

!!!Apellidos
The most common last name in Ecuador is Zambrano, which you will find a lot. There are some interesting details, though, like the widespread Lebanese diaspora making these surnames common across the country, as well as names for people particularly in the East being in the form "de los X". This comes from the history of slavery, where plantation workers would be identified by where they worked (which takes the place of the 'X').

!!!Nombres
Besides Spanish, there's also a decent amount of English and Portuguese influence on Ecuadorian given names, including "Dayana" (Diana), Samantha, Michael, Josué, Fabiola, Jairo. The names Choez is also quite common as part of a compound name.

Ecuador has a lot of regional nicknames -- like calling people New-Yorkers, but imagine it if you have a varied friend group then you would call the NY friend New-Yorker, the Canadian friend Moosey or Mountie or something, the Wisconsin friend Cheesey or Packers, you get the idea.

* '''Mono''' -- literally means monkey, but used as an AffectionateNickname for people from the Guayaquil area and surrounding coast. Sometimes it can be racist, though, so be careful.
* '''Guayaca/o''' -- The technical nominative for people from Guayaquil is guayaquilaña/o, but using this is much more common if your friend is from Guayaquil. It's the word that would denote products of the area, but people typically won't take it that way.
* '''Caramba''' -- a slightly juvenile word that you'd use to call your friends/family that are mischievous. It's not very complimentary, so if you use it as a friendly nickname then they're probably very good friends.
* '''Serrano''' -- this is an actual Spanish word, and a surname, but is used as a nickname for people from the highlands (since that's what it means)
* '''Taita''' -- a word from Kichwa, used instead of papa as a nickname for your father. It's pronounced kind of like the "tater" in 'tater tots'.

!!UsefulNotes/{{Peru}}
Everyone in Peru has a double given name and a double surname, which does simplify it a bit. There's also a lot of Asian immigrants.

Peru sticks to the common names. However, it also has a lot of Asian immigrants and so there will be some of these surnames popping up. As mentioned, Peru only does two last names, one from each parent, but are a bit stricter at keeping your father's in front of your mother's. They also have no formal laws on married names, but strongly divided opinions.

Children in Peru have two given names. These usually follow stringent tradition, with the first often Biblical or the name of a dead relative. This also means that there are some more unusual religious-themed names appearing in Peru, like Selestino and Saturnin, and very English and Hebrew sounding names that aren't translated in the Bible, like Ruth. Luz is also a popular girls' name, not just meaning "light" but coming from the title Nuestra Señora/María de la Luz.

Also note that one of the more popular boys' name is Annie. Peru, man. More recently, there are also some English names that have had letters contrary to pronunciation being used, like Isac, Jefry, Katherin, Melisa, Aron, Stephany. The name Maverick has also become quite popular.

Because of the Asian immigrants, there are obviously also quite a few Asian names, too, with the Japanese Aika making it onto top lists.

!Caribbean

!!UsefulNotes/{{Cuba}}

!!!Apellidos
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_cuba.png]]
Cuba is one of the countries that more commonly includes longer surnames in two ways: it retains a lot of the long singular names from colonial periods when many other Latin American countries have not, and it is one of the countries (along with much of Central America) that commonly includes grandparent/ancestral/lineage surnames in addition to father's and mother's.

Honestly, who let Cuba come up with their own rules? This gets messy. The short version is that the nation's tradition seems to be rooted in misogyny, as in practical usage most men go by an inherited family name and women go by either their father's name, their husband's name, or both. Ironically, actual full surnames are very hefty and can be strangely ordered. The base of taking surnames is the typical Latin American pattern of your father's, your mother's, your paternal grandmother's, your maternal grandmother's (which can be rephrased many ways because lots of your relatives will have all these names in various different orders), but something funny happens when it comes to marriage, at least traditionally and commonly persisting in several (even modern American) communities. The woman's first surname -- the one from her father and his father, etc. -- gets bumped to the end of her inherited names. This actually makes quite a lot of sense, at least in terms of women being viewed as property. The last 'name' to be seen, typically the easiest part to remember, will be [father's name] de [husband's name], which is in short saying that she belongs to these two men. At this point, the rest of the surname may be discounted or just fairly simple to use with the woman's given names, the ending now most important.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apellidos_odaat3.png]]
Take the example of the remake of ''Series/{{One Day at a Time|2017}}'', about a Cuban-American family, and [[ShownTheirWork with a Cuban-American showrunner]]. Lydia is the mother of Penelope, who is the mother of Elena. We have Lydia's full name, Lydia Margarita Del Carmen Inclan Maribona Leytevidal de Riera, and Elena's full name, Elena Maria Alvarez Riera Calderón Leytevidal Inclan. In parts: [Inclan] [Maribona] [Leytevidal] de [Riera] and [Alvarez] [Riera] [Calderón] [Leytevidal] [Inclan]. Because Lydia has been married, her father's name is Leytevidal, which makes it Penelope's mother's (i.e. Lydia) name, so Penelope's name (since she has also been married) will start [Leytevidal]. From Elena's name, Alvarez is her father, Penelope's husband, so Penelope's name will end with de [Alvarez]; Lydia's husband's name is Riera, and this is also Elena's mother's name, so it is Penelope's father's name and will come before as [Riera] de [Alvarez]. From Elena's name, Calderón comes from her paternal grandmother, her father's side, and so won't appear in Penelope's name. Similarly, in Lydia's name, Maribona is her grandmother's surname and theoretically too far removed for Penelope to inherit it, though this isn't unheard of (and it is evident that Elena was given such a name, likely connecting with the matriarchy displayed in the show). Inclan is Penelope's grandmother's name, so it will appear 'last' in her name, as [Inclan] [Riera] de [Alvarez]. Unfortunately, we don't know Penelope's father's full name to work out what would come before Inclan, leaving her unmarried name as [Riera] [Leytevidal] [?] [Inclan], and her married name as [Leytevidal] [?] [Inclan] [Riera] de [Alvarez]. A fun (actually, difficult and taxing) exercise is to apply this to work out other peoples' names from their relatives; it also helps prove the point that 1. it works, 2. it's hard, 3. why, Cuba, why?!

* '''-ico''' and '''-ica''' -- Cuba does a funny thing where after the first diminuation, nicknames get weird. So, poco -> poquito, but poquito -/-> poquitito. It becomes poquitico. Chiquita becomes chiquitica, etc. Careful with the nicknames you give your Cuban characters, it may be safest to stick to close familiarity (the first diminuation) rather than going for the {{narm}} of the second diminuation.

!!!Other
Two Cuban musicians perfectly demonstrated why you should never assume Spanish names function like English ones -- Dámaso Pérez Prado, the Cuban-born bandleader and "King of the Mambo", shortened his name to just Pérez Prado after he achieved fame in the US, in the 1940s. This led to him getting confused with his brother, bassist [[AlliterativeName Pantaleón Pérez Prado]], twice. In the 50s, Pantaleón pretended to be his more famous brother by touring Europe and billing himself as "Pérez Prado" (until Dámaso took him to court and made him stop). And when Pantaleón died in 1983, [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated newspapers incorrectly reported the King of the Mambo's passing.]] This came about because Dámaso began using an American form of naming conventions where he used only one surname, and took the other as a patronymic given name; Pantaleón still used Cuban naming conventions and so his surname was the same as Dámaso's full name, but this is also the reason why Dámaso could take him to court: if they were each seen to only be using their surname as billing, Pantaleón likely would have been able to continue.

!!UsefulNotes/PuertoRico
Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, so much of the culture and common names amongst Puerto Ricans in the US is very similar to on Puerto Rico itself. This means that they probably have names similar to what you expect. Still, there are cultural differences as well as Caribbean influence that create some differences, and of course different communities that maybe haven't had as much impact on US culture. As such, there are some French and classical names appearing as well.

%%!!Caribbean

!Central America

!!UsefulNotes/{{Nicaragua}}
In general, there are two factors that majorly affect Nicaraguan naming schemes: the ethnic diversity of the country, and politics. While the political elite is largely mestizo, there are to this day notable indigenous and Afro-descendent groups that speak indigenous languages and creole English, mostly in the Eastern half of the country. While many families gave their kids conservative, biblical names akin to franquist Spain until the Sandinista Revolution of 1979, since then Russian derived "communist" names -- and in more recent times, "American" names -- have become popular. However, it is often that not all Nicaraguans fully understand the cultural origin of the name and as such last names may be used as first names, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS uncommon spellings]] and [[ItIsPronouncedTropay mispronunciations]] abound.

!!!Nombres
It is often easy to at least somewhat pinpoint when somebody was born and which political leanings their parents had at the time. If they have a "pedestrian" Spanish name like José, Juan, Luis or the likes, they were likely born before the 1979 revolution. If they have a name like "Lenin", "Mijail" (varying spelllings, sometimes also "Mikhail") or the likes, they were likely born in the 1980s. If they have a name one cannot really place, they might've been born in the 1990s or later. These days it is not uncommon to give a "weird" first name and a "normal" middle name, such as "Beyton Francisco" or "Mayela Luisa". Younger couples also take to PortmanteauCoupleName for their kid, creating a new name by smoshing together the name of the parents. American names, or in some cases [[EaglelandOsmosis what Nicaraguans think are American names]] have also become popular since the end of the Contra War, giving rise to such bizarre concoctions as "Ruswel" (a phonetic spelling of a mispronunciation of [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents Teddy or FDR]]). "Bismarck" is another not unheard of first name, as is Daisy.

!!!Apellidos
Nicaragua has for a long time been some form of HereditaryRepublic and as such "last names" carried a lot of weight. The unquestionably most important family on the national level were, for most of the 19th century and the early 20th century, the Chamorros, who had several of their number rise to the presidency or take high positions in business or journalism. The Somozas were initially the equivalent of minor nobility, but managed to eke out a family dictatorship from the 1930s to the aforementioned 1979 revolution. However, their family name is -- for understandable reasons -- mud. Nicaragua also had a small but significant German descendant minority, who primarily settled in the North of the country and got active in the coffee business. If somebody has a German sounding last name, they may be connected to that heritage. Somoza "fought" in World War 2 by expropriating many German-Nicaraguans for alleged or real Nazi sympathies.

!!!Nicknames
Nicaraguans love getting nicknames, but due to the rather uncommon first names (and hence difficulty to use "standard" nicknames) and the often sprawling and tightly knit families making last name-based nicknames impractical, nicknames are often based on outwards appearance. They may be rather direct (ex-president Arnoldo Aleman is known as "El Gordo" due to his rotundness) and sometimes {{ironic|Nickname}}, calling somebody exactly the thing they ''aren't''. A common word that even casual white skinned visitors to Nicaragua are bound to hear is "chele", apparently derived from "leche" (milk) with the syllables turned around, which is used for light skinned people, particularly light skinned foreigners or, in some cases, dark skinned people in irony.

%%
%%!!Central America

!South America

!!!Apellidos

In UsefulNotes/{{Argentina}}, the surname practice is the same as that of the United States for most; children take their father's surname, and people use only this one surname.
%%
%%UsefulNotes/{{Bolivia}}

In UsefulNotes/{{Chile}}, however, surnames are used in the paternal first surname + maternal first surname format. There is one large difference to most hispanohablantes nations, though, in that it is actually considered rather offensive to try to apply a married name to a woman's surnames. Chile also has quite a high number of Basque surnames, among many historically Spanish but relatively uncommon names (e.g. Contreras, Sepúlveda).

In UsefulNotes/{{Paraguay}} there's a lot of Castilian influence, as well as some Portuguese names like Duarte being common.

In UsefulNotes/{{Uruguay}}, two surnames are used but the parents can choose which order these are used, like in Spain. There is also the provision for same-sex couples that if an agreement cannot be reached then it will chosen by random draw, otherwise if the parents can't agree then the father's goes first.
%%
%%!!!Nombres

!!!Nicknames

* '''Cote''' -- this is a nickname that is fairly common in most hispanohablantes nations that is an affectionate name for girls called "María José" and "María Josefa". Whilst it is common in these other countries, though, there are typically other nicknames as well (e.g. Pepa) and they will not use Cote as if it is basically a replacement name in the way that, for example, Pepe is for José alone. In many South American countries, though, they do. An example would be the Chilean actress Creator/CoteDePablo.
%%

!Gran Colombia/Colombian Peninsula

!Other Central America

Cuba is one of the countries that more commonly includes longer surnames in two ways: it retains a lot of the long singular names from colonial periods when many other Central American countries have not, and it is one of the countries (along with much of Central America) that commonly includes grandparent/ancestral/lineage surnames in addition to father's and mother's.

!!UsefulNotes/PuertoRico
Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, so much of the culture and common names amongst Puerto Ricans in the US is very similar to on Puerto Rico itself. This means that they probably have names similar to what you expect. Still, there are cultural differences as well as Caribbean influence that create some differences, and of course different communities that maybe haven't had as much impact on US culture. As such, there are some French and classical names appearing as well.

%%!!Central America -- Others

Spanish is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world, and Latin/Hispanic cultures are among the most common non-Anglo cultures represented in media. For these reasons, many may falsely assume that various Spanish cultures and traditions are similar or identical to Anglo-American ones, with only more [[TheCartel drugs]], [[{{Bandito}} crime]], and [[DashingHispanic really]] [[SpicyLatina attractive]] [[LatinLover people]]. However, this is not the case. One of the [[CriticalResearchFailure most obvious things to get wrong]] is the names you give to people being inappropriate for the time/location, misgendered, or just plain incorrect. The one thing many {{comed|y}}ies, especially, often do get right is [[OverlyLongSpanishName the length many names can be]], typically for laughs. Unfortunately, a lot of media relies on reusing {{Stock Foreign Name}}s without checking if they're appropriate. Hopefully, this page will help you out more than that.